Via Reddit – NASA’s mission to put a man on the moon was successful, but as the anyone who has watched The West Wing knows, the presidents speech writers have to be prepared for anything. The National Archives has released a copy of the speech that was written for President Nixon to read had the mission failed and the astronauts were going to be stranded on the moon.
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
There is such beauty in these words and the sentiment behind them, that despite everything, the search for knowledge will not end. That man’s growing desire to reach out to the stars wouldn’t stop that day. With Curiosity’s recent touchdown on the surface of Mars, that same sense of adventure and desire to understand continues on today.
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